We, Who Were Classmates, Reminisced About Old Times

From the very first moment we laid eyes on each other, I knew I didn't like her.

The younger sister of that prodigy youth [Hero] who'd pulled off the unprecedented feat, the first in a full twenty years, of passing the [Hero Exam] purely on self-study, without ever attending a hero-prep academy.

Our grades had been on a par. Our looks had been on a par. And yet, simply because she was the famous [Hero] Elt's little sister, the girls and boys around her fawned over her, the teachers thought the world of her, she always trailed an entourage of admirers in her wake, and she was always smiling, always so happy. Every time I caught sight of her like that, my chest filled up with this ugly, hateful feeling, and I swore to myself: whatever it took, I was going to come out on top of her…

"Ka-chan… it's been a while."

"… I asked you not to call me by that name."

Wearing not a trace of caution, the chestnut-haired girl in front of her, Seara August, gave Karen an utterly artless smile.

With a small, faint sigh, Karen lowered herself onto the stool beside her.

A little counter-bar tucked away in the basement of a building near Amada's Royal Capital Store.

Seara's gaze fell on the bag at Karen's side, and a soft, amused breath escaped her.

"Oh my, carrying your work binder even off the clock… it really gives off that 'capable career woman' vibe. So cool."

"And I told you not to touch it. There's confidential material in there!"

"Oh, sorry, sorry."

"… Honestly."

Heading off Seara's hand from the binder, Karen sighed again.

Seara took another look at the profile of the woman seated shoulder-to-shoulder with her, and a happy little smile crossed her face.

"I'm glad. To be honest, I'd half-resigned myself to you not coming."

"… Then why did you call me out here in the first place?"

"Because I love you, Ka-chan. That's all."

"… You…"

… With the air of someone utterly exasperated.

Karen took a sip of the vivid fluorescent-pink cocktail and narrowed her eyes the barest fraction.

"It's always the same line with you, even way back when… If you're going to needle me, could you at least put a little variety into it? I'll lend you a dictionary, if you'd like."

"Hehe, I'm not needling you, I promise."

"… I have hated you for as long as I can remember, I have said so out loud at every opportunity, and I have, by every means available to me, made that clear, or at least so I had intended. Have I not?"

"That's… true, I suppose…"

To Karen's unyielding words, Seara hummed a quiet "Hmmm," and went on,

"Like, when I was out sick with a cold, you brought me a forged test-range printout and a fake set of notes, and during home-ec lab, you switched the sugar and the citric acid…"

"… Well, for my part, I was tricked by the forged printout and notes you handed back to me a few days later and ended up taking the worst failing grade of my life, and I was the very first one made to taste the killer nikujaga you whipped up after mistaking the citric acid for sugar. Humiliations, all of them, I'd say."

"Ah, and that business with the fake phone tree where you fed me a made-up date for the field trip… I might still hold a tiny grudge over that one. Thanks to it, I lost a precious date I'd had planned with my brother. And on top of all that…"

Cutting herself off there, the Manager looked over at Karen and smiled, gently.

"On top of all that, this whole business now… everything you've set in motion, Ka-chan, to take Fino away from me. It's been pretty rough."

"… You understood that, and yet… why…?"

The question slipped out of Karen unbidden, and across from her, Seara propped her cheek on one hand and, tilting her head a little, smiled.

"Because even after my brother had his hero license stripped from him, you didn't change one bit, Ka-chan. If anything, you stood up for me."

"That was…"

For an instant, the words caught in her throat.

Wetting her mouth with another sip of the cocktail, Karen looked away and spoke up.

"… That was simply because it didn't sit right with me. The teachers and classmates who, right up until the day before, had fawned over you, turning ice-cold on you in a single about-face. The strengths of yours I had personally acknowledged hadn't changed in the slightest, and yet for you to be treated like that over something that had nothing to do with those strengths… I thought it was unconscionable."

"… That's exactly why I love you, Ka-chan."

Eyes narrowed tenderly, Seara smiled.

"Everyone else saw me as my brother's… as [Hero] Elt's little sister. You were the only one, Ka-chan, who only ever looked at me, who acknowledged the strengths that were mine."

"… …"

"After my brother died, when in barely a year I ended up having to drop out of higher academy, you were the only one who tried to stop me. So you see, Ka-chan, I really do think of you as my closest friend in the world… you know?"

Unable to meet Seara's straight, unwavering gaze, Karen lowered her eyes without meaning to.

"… You can flatter me all you like, you know. It's not going to win me over."

"Yes, I know."

With a sunny smile.

A strong color rising in her eyes, Seara declared, crisply,

"I am not giving Fino-chan up to you. Not for anything. Our match from the higher-academy days got carried over when I dropped out, but… this time, I'm not going to lose to you, Ka-chan."

 

*

 

"And where, may I ask, have you been at this critical hour?"

The late-night office of Amada Magic's Royal Capital Store.

Opening a door she'd thought no one was behind, Karen was addressed without warning, and her eyes narrowed slightly.

"… With an old acquaintance. A little."

After a hesitant pause, Karen spoke.

"Why, exactly, is it that you want that girl?"

Stepping toward the man who stood by the window, binder still clutched under her arm, Karen continued in a flat, even voice.

"Putting Manager Cloud up to it, pouring out vast sums of money… going to this much trouble and expense over a single part-timer at some small shop like Leon. I cannot understand it. I do not believe that girl is worth that kind of value, and if it's outstanding personnel you're after, Amada is brimming with them. On top of that…"

… She cut herself off, hesitating.

"On top of that, tomorrow's event… what in the world are you thinking…"

"It is not necessary for you to know, Karen-kun."

The man cut Karen's question off, his tone brooking no argument.

"All you need do is hold your tongue and follow the instructions I give you."

"… Yes, sir."

"Now then, are the preparations for tomorrow in perfect order? Please reconfirm the security personnel's arms and stations one more time. And the operation for evacuating the general public into the Amada store as well… after all, with tomorrow's event, there's no telling what might happen, you know?"

In the face of the man's words, which left no room for refusal, Karen bowed her head and gave a single answer: "Understood."